do invite you to turn this evening to the book of Exodus as we begin a new study in Leviticus. So we're gonna read a few verses in Exodus chapter 19. We wanna remember as we come to this new study that Leviticus is not a book that stands independent of Exodus. the Pentateuch. It is the very center of the five books of Moses, and Exodus provides for us that historical context of what is taking place. So before we get to Leviticus chapter one, I do want to read several passages that really, I pray, will help shape the setting for Leviticus. Find in this book that God has redeemed a people out of bondage out of slavery and where we are in Exodus 19 he's brought his people to Mount Sinai and there in a very mighty way They are gonna be beholding the majesty and holiness of God. So Exodus 19, we'll read, picking up at verse 16, where it says this, this is the word of the Lord. On the morning of the third day, there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast so that all the people in the camp trembled. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln. The whole mountain trembled greatly. And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder. The Lord came down on Mount Sinai to the top of the mountain, and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up, and the Lord said to Moses, go down and warn the people, lest they break through to the Lord to look, and many of them perish. Also let the priests who come near to the Lord consecrate themselves, lest the Lord break out against them. And Moses said to the Lord, the people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for you yourself warned us saying, set limits around the mountain and consecrated. And the Lord said to him, go down and come up, bringing Aaron with you. But do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the Lord, lest he break out against them. So Moses went down to the people and told them, And then Moses receives the law in chapter 20. And if you go down to verse 18 of chapter 20, this is in receiving the law. Now, when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountains smoking, the people were afraid and trembled. And they stood far off and said to Moses, you speak to us and we will listen, but do not let God speak to us lest we die. Moses said to the people, do not fear. "'For God has come to test you, "'that the fear of him may be before you, "'that you may not sin.' "'The people stood far off, while Moses drew near "'to the thick darkness where God was.'" And if you turn now to Exodus chapter 40, what you have between what we've just read is Moses, from God, giving the instructions for the tabernacle, all of the pieces of furniture in there, its significance, and all of the instructions for the priests, and there's going to be then this tabernacle that is going to be the dwelling place of the Lord, and at the very end of Exodus, you have the tabernacle built. And when that tabernacle was then completed, we come now to verse 34, and this is how Exodus ends, and then we'll read the first verse of Leviticus. Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it. And the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, and the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys. The Lord called to Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting. And the Lord will bless the reading of his word. The question we have in what we've read and really in anticipating the entire message of Leviticus is how do we approach a holy God who promises to dwell in our midst? That's really what we have. If we look at Leviticus in its canonical setting, you have a remarkable sovereign act of divine grace of God redeeming a people out of Egypt. And then he brings them to himself, but in the process he shows to them that he is a holy God. He is of a kind of holiness that no one has ever been able to behold. We see the drama there in Exodus where the people are gathered and God comes down on Mount Sinai and it, as it were, it goes up in flames because of his divine presence. And the people hear his voice and they say, we can't take this. And they say, we don't want the Lord to speak to us. Moses, you go speak to the Lord, and then you speak to us, because we can't take that majesty. We can't take that holiness. And in all of that act of grace, and all of that redemption, there's this repetitive theme of God saying, I will be your God. and you will be my people, and I will dwell in your midst, and we will have fellowship." But Leviticus raises that question, how? How is it that God, who has no dwelling place because he's God, but yet dwells in a tent, And then from that tent, calls out to Moses from the tent. But yet Moses can't go in the tent. But God is desiring fellowship and communion. And so Leviticus is, I would say one of the most neglected books in the Old Testament for obvious reasons that we'll address, but it's also one of the most important books in not only the Old Testament, but also the New. And what I pray that we see in this study is the majesty of God, the holiness of God, And the message of Leviticus, which is God's holy presence demands holiness if there is to be fellowship. And so throughout this whole book, there's going to be this repetitive statement, be holy for I, the Lord your God, am holy. So there's two holinesses here. One is the essence of God, it is who he is. And because of who he is, there is a demand on us if we are to have any kind of relationship and fellowship with him. But it's also important that we see where Leviticus is in the Pentateuch. Leviticus comes after Exodus. And that's an important observation for more than just memorizing the books of the Bible. Exodus has to come first. because it is an exodus where we see how God sovereignly redeems a people. And then Leviticus teaches us how God sovereignly makes a redeemed people holy. And you cannot reverse that order. We don't become holy in order to be redeemed. So you can think of Exodus and Leviticus, even how Paul lays out many of his epistles. The first half, this is the good news of what God does in Jesus Christ in redeeming you and justifying. Now, therefore, live this way. That's what Leviticus teaches us. And it does so in a way that really draws us to a place where we have to, as it were, bow the knee. Because as Job says in chapter 37, with God there is terrible majesty. God is not a God who is light. God is a God to be feared, which is a theme in the Old Testament. And what I want to do this evening is at the very start, acknowledge some of the difficulties. If you were, what, were two months away, three months away from the New Year's resolutions of reading the Bible through in a year, and you're gonna look at that scheme that you choose, and probably by mid, maybe mid-February, you're gonna land in Leviticus. And I think you've read Hebrews enough to know that when you read the first five chapters of Leviticus, you're like, oh, those are the sacrifices, I get that. I can see how that, and you're rolling strong from Genesis 1 to Leviticus 7-ish. And then you hit 8 and 9, and you're like, oh, that's about the priest, I can plow through that. And then you get to 11. and the dietary laws, and then the holiness codes, and all the skin diseases, and then chapter 14 and 15, all of the bodily discharge, you're like, I'm out. And you're in Philippians. And that's good, Philippians is great. But what I hope to show is that Leviticus, even for believers in the new covenant, reveals something to us that is relevant. But it is difficult, I admit. But there are, in the New Testament, at least 17 direct quotations to Leviticus and over 100 allusions to Leviticus. And then it is the book of Leviticus that gives to us that basic understanding of certain categories of ideas such as holiness, cleanness, the priesthood, guilt, atonement, propitiation, expiation. If you take Leviticus and the message of Leviticus out of your Bible, you will have a less clear understanding of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for you in his life and ministry. And so I pray that God will give us grace to persevere together as we walk through this book. But tonight, I just wanna give you four themes based on the structure of Leviticus. The first lesson that Leviticus teaches us is that it opens with the revelation that fellowship with God is only possible through sacrifice. Chapters one through seven give to us various sacrifices that each teach a different thing, and I thought it was in God's providence, Pastor Brian's call to worship tonight was a reminder that any approach to God in worship is through sacrifice. And in the book of Leviticus, We find the blood referred to in a context of sacrifice 73 times. And so that right there communicates to us that the necessity of the blood is central, not only to Leviticus, but to the whole of Scripture. Now, we have seen that in Leviticus, this phrase, the life is in the blood, and that's an important phrase because it shows to us something about the value of life, but also the value of the efficacy of the sacrifice. And when we read through Leviticus, we're going to be struck with the repetitive nature of these old covenant sacrifices, and that's because there is not infinite value in the blood of bulls and goats. And so that by itself teaches us that it's not the bull, it's not the goat, it's not the bird that brings that ultimate forgiveness. It's something beyond that. But what is it beyond that? It's the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And have you ever asked yourself how could it be that a historical figure, Jesus of Nazareth, 2,000 years ago, dies on the cross and that one death has value? for all of the elect of God to cover all of their sin, it's because of the concept that there's life in the blood. Now the blood of Christ is of infinite value because he is the God-man. And so even there in this repetition of sacrifices and the emphasis on the blood points us to see, that if there is any fellowship with God, it has to be by virtue of sacrifice. And there's gonna be a number of different sacrifices in Israel's ritual worship here, and we're gonna look at those over the next few weeks, Lord willing. But we want to see in them, almost a pattern of what Hebrews does for us. And Hebrews is really that New Testament book that is a commentary on Leviticus. And so the writer of Hebrews wants us to see that the Mosaic covenant, this Levitical rite and rituals, has inherent in it a pointer to something that is of inestimable value, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. The second thing that we learn in Leviticus, in chapters eight through 10, is that Leviticus teaches us that fellowship with God requires mediation. We cannot offer the sacrifice ourself. God has chosen a priesthood. And you have Aaron, and you have Aaron's sons, and you have this priestly class, and they are the ones sovereignly appointed by God to act on behalf of Israel or humanity before him. And this parallels the prophet. So Moses, as that mediator of the old covenant, he's the one who speaks to the people on God's behalf. He represents God before the people. Aaron and his sons will represent the people before God. There's always this mediation. And it's appointed. And you can see in chapters eight and nine particularly characteristics of the priesthood that we have pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ. And then the third lesson that we learn in chapters 11 through 15 and 17 to 27 is that Leviticus illustrates for us that fellowship with God demands holiness. Fellowship with God demands holiness, and again, throughout this book, there is the repetitive refrain, I the Lord your God am holy. There are gonna be some commands that, especially in our context, make absolutely no sense. Don't eat this. And it's a shrimp, and you think, huh, I like shrimp. Glad I'm in the new covenant. Then you're over here and he's like, but you can eat this insect. You're like, huh, don't like insects. Glad I'm not in the old covenant. And you have all these things, and none of them on a surface level seem to make sense. And it's just one command like this after another. This bird's clean, this bird's unclean, this fish is clean, this fish is, and then at the end it says, for I, the Lord your God, am holy. And so we learn something about God and his sovereignty, and we also learn something about the importance of holiness. And when we get to the end of all of these holiness codes, whether it's dietary, whether it's physical, whether it's our clothing, not wearing mixed cloths, I mean, textiles, whatever, all of that, And then you get to the feast days and the time you realize that from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to bed, and then even in bed at night, there is the prospect of something to make you unclean. Now, unclean here is not a statement of one's spiritual state, like they don't lose their justification every time they maybe actually eat honey or whatever. It's ceremonial clean, ceremonially unclean, but you walk away thinking, wow, the prospect of being polluted by sin is everywhere. And so what then is the solution? to always be appealing to God and His mercy and His provision through that sacrificial system, not having your hope in the bull and the goat, but beyond that, that this is obedience and it is from the heart. And so holiness is going to become something that's vitally important. The word holiness itself and all of its cognates occur over 152 times in Leviticus. So you can't read through the book and walk away not wondering what an emphasis of the book is. And so we want to see also that the Lord Jesus Christ, right, the Lord Jesus Christ himself quotes Leviticus 19 very frequently. This is the passage of love your neighbor, right? This is because I the Lord your God am holy. And again, you look here in these chapters and it's talking about farming and not rounding or, leaving the corner of your field and all that, and you're like, I'm not a farmer, what does that have to do? And the whole thing is, you care for the needy. There's people all around you that are less fortunate, and so God has baked into the very system the entire second table of the law, which is caring for your neighbor, having eyes for someone else. And so all of this translates into the new covenant in a broader, bigger way. But even in the Old Testament here, it is within these laws, and again, so distant and foreign to us, that is, look, love your neighbor. And what does loving your neighbor flow from? Loving God, who is the one true and living God. And then fourth and finally, on the themes of the book, Leviticus highlights that fellowship with God through atonement brings us into the fullness of divine presence. And this is revealed in the drama of the day of atonement. I'm not sure if there is maybe, maybe Isaiah 53, a passage in the Old Testament that captures in pictures the breadth of what Jesus Christ has done for us than Leviticus 16. In Leviticus 16, and this has been observed by other commentators and biblical theologians on Leviticus, that Leviticus 16 is the center of the book of Leviticus, which is the center of the Pentateuch. And so if you look at the Pentateuch, Genesis through Deuteronomy, and you find the heart of the Pentateuch, that is worship and fellowship with God. And at the very heart of that is the day of atonement. This is the one day of Israel's year where only one person could enter into the holy of holies. This was the great day of Israel's history. It was a day of fasting, it was a sobering day. And it was a day of much drama. And throughout this book, we see the concept of atonement occur over 43 times. But on this day, you have the high priest taking off those royal priestly garments. making a sacrifice first for himself because of his own fallenness, because of his own sin, and then he takes that first goat, right, and that goat then is brought into the presence of the whole assembly, and then he places his hand on the head of that goat, and that great picture of the sins of the people being transferred to that animal, and that goat being sacrificed, And then following the detailed instructions of God, he takes that blood into the Holy of Holies and he sprinkles that mercy seat. And then he comes out and I know there's been a lot of talk about a rope that you can yank if he dies, but he was never gonna die in the Holy of Holies. And he comes out and then he takes that second goat And in the presence of the whole assembly, he places his hand on the head of that goat, that picture of the sins of the people being transferred to that animal, and that goat goes outside the camp, never to return again. And so in that one drama, you have a picture of a high priest who himself goes into the Holy of Holies. Hebrews tells us that Jesus Christ, when he died and he offered up that pure and spotless and holy sacrifice of himself, where did he go? He went into that true holy of holies, not made with hands, but it was the true form of which this was just a pattern. And he goes in there and he pleads his sacrifice over his people. And he did not first have to offer a sacrifice for himself because he is spotless, he's sinless, he's holy, he's blameless. Nor did he offer a sacrifice outside of himself, but in his spotlessness, in his blamelessness, he says, I will be the lamb. and he gives himself for his people in that great image and picture that all of our sins, all of your sins, and here's where it matters, right? Every single specific sin you've ever committed, right? Sometimes we think, isn't it wonderful that Jesus died for my sins? And it is, but we think about that sometimes in the abstract, but every evil thought, every evil deed, every selfish motive, every selfish action, every impure thought, every impure word, every impure... You go down the list, every single sin that you are aware of and all of the sins that you're not aware of, Every single one placed upon the Lord Jesus Christ and on the cross, he bears the full wrath of God. And he takes that blood and he pleads it before the Father. And what does Hebrews tell us? That Jesus Christ is the mercy seat. He is where we go to find mercy. He is where we go. And we see then, right, that on that resurrection day, again, the picture of that high priest coming out of the Holy of Holies, there Jesus comes out from the grave as our great high priest. Why? Because the Father's wrath was satisfied. against all of your sin, it's all paid. And so now what then happens to our sin? Well, in Jesus Christ, because of his blood, because of that propitiation, that satisfaction, because the wrath of God is appeased, now our sins are removed as far as the east is from the west, they're washed away. That's the picture of the second goat. So in Jesus, We have everything coming together that we find in Leviticus 16, and that is the heart of the Pentateuch, and that's the heart of all of the Bible. And so it is this book of Leviticus that teaches us very clearly in picture prophecy, in these visual aids, as it were, what the Lord Jesus Christ does in himself. And then what do we also know that happens where the blood is applied? That we are transformed. We're made holy. We are able to be holy. We're able to live holy lives because of the work of Jesus Christ. And so he is our acceptance. He is our pardon. He is our peace. And he's also our transformation. And it's all guaranteed. He is our security. And so we have that reality that by that atonement, we are brought into the full presence of God. Now, I've mentioned a few words in types, shadows, picture prophecies. We want to keep that in mind as we read Leviticus. 1 Corinthians 10 says that these things happened as our example. That word example there is the word type. And so what we have in Leviticus is just a bunch of types, a bunch of examples. all pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ. So in our interpretation, we have to keep that in mind. But Hebrews 10 also says of another word, it says that this old covenant worship is a shadow of good things to come. The old covenant, the rituals of Leviticus were never intended to be the full and final say, they're shadows, right? If you are walking, it wouldn't be today, because it was overcast, but if you're walking on a sunny day, and you're walking towards someone, and they're walking towards you, you see, depending on where the sun is, either a lengthy shadow cast or a short shadow. But you know that if there's a shadow, there's a form behind it, right? You can't have a shadow unless there's some kind of reality or form. And Hebrews tells us that all the things here, these are shadows. So the question is, what is the form? Colossians tells us. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. When he has come, the substance has arrived and the shadows disappear. It doesn't mean that the Mosaic Covenant is a failure. It was never intended to be anything but a shadow, a preparation, a teaching, a guide. And so again, we have Hebrews, and Hebrews is a wonderful book to read alongside Leviticus. And so in keeping in mind types, shadows, Christ is the anti-type or the opposite of the image. And shadow, he's the form that will help us as we read these difficult passages. But as we come to the table, I wanna leave you with just an observation of the first three sacrifices. We'll look at these more deeply. And I really cannot think of a better evening to introduce this book than on a night that we celebrate the Lord's Supper. In the first three chapters, we have three different sacrifices. The first one, chapter one, is called the burnt offering or the ascension offering. In this sacrifice, the entire animal was placed on the altar, picturing complete consecration with everything given to the Lord, nothing held back. And this was repeated every morning and every evening in Israel's life. And then sometimes more during the day. But the priest always offered this in the morning and in the evening. which reminds us that the totality of our day requires mediation and sacrifice. And all of our life is lived in light of the cross. And there is this reality that this burnt offering, the animal from the flock or the herd, it could not fully, because even that animal is from the created order, which means there is a fallenness. Even in the best of the herd, it's still a creature. But Hebrews 10 tells us this wonderful statement where it says of Jesus, quoting a psalm, lo it was written in the book of me, you have prepared a body for me to do what? To do your will. And only in Jesus Christ has there been a body, a being, who can say, in all of my existence, in the totality of my being, I am fully consecrated, fully given over to God. And it says there in Hebrews 10, it's not the sacrifice of the Jedi, it is the heart. And we see Jesus as the one who has given himself wholly and totally for us. And then the second sacrifice in chapter two is the tribute offering, sometimes called the meat or the grain offering. And the grain is never sacrificed or offered apart from a bloody sacrifice. And here we're reminded that any, Any fellowship with God acknowledges and is a consecration and dedication of all of us to Him for temporal and spiritual benefits. And then third, in chapter three, the peace offering. And in the burnt offering, the whole offering is taken up in the fire. Nothing remains. In the tribute offering, the priest gets a portion. But in the peace offering, the worshiper gets a portion, the priest gets a portion, and God gets a portion. And what a marvelous reality that is, and what a wonderful picture that is. Here, it speaks of peace, and fellowship, and communion. The worshiper comes to the tabernacle with an animal. The priest goes through his instructions. He gives part of it to the Lord, taken up in the fire. The priest takes part of it. And then the worshiper can go home with part of it. And he can sit down at a meal with his family and say, dear family, there's peace. There is peace with God. And so here we can tonight, dear Christian, look upon the sacrifice of Jesus who gave himself wholly and totally to the Lord in his life. It was his desire, his meat to do the Father's will. In no way did he sin. We see him there even in the garden submitting his human will to the Father's will. Nevertheless not mine, but your will be done. And that great act of death on the cross, total obedience. And he is the reason for all that we are and all that we have and he is our peace. And so we come here tonight not having to go through rituals and rites that point to something. We are the direct beneficiaries of the Messiah who has come and who has paid it all and the fullness of revelation is bound up in him. And there on the night in which he was betrayed, he took bread. and he ate and he drank with his disciples. And do you remember what he said to them on that night? It was a night that he, in his own soul, was exceedingly sorrowful. There was great turmoil in his own mind and agony, fully conscious of what was about to take place. He was going to experience for the first time Not to know that sweet fellowship with his father. But nevertheless, not my will but thine. And he looks to his disciples and he says, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you, but my peace, that peace that you can have with the Father, that peace that you have with the Son, that peace you have with the Spirit, and that peace you have with one another. And he takes in their presence. What a day that would have been to see the hands of the Lord. Take the elements of that last Passover meal as the Passover lamb. But he celebrates that and he says, that's done now. I'm your Passover. Here's this bread. Here's this wine. Testifies of my body and my blood, let us be.